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Watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat's towers

The mud at the reflecting pool's edge is soft enough to lose a sandal in, and you will be standing in it before dawn with everyone else who read the same guidebook. Entry requires an Angkor Pass, stamped and checked at several gates on the road in, well before the sky does anything interesting. Then it does: the five towers of Angkor Wat, built under King Suryavarman II in the early twelfth century as the world's largest religious monument by land area, turn from silhouette to gold as the sun clears the tree line, doubled in the still water below. A monk's robe, saffron, catches the same light.

Practical

Cost
$37–62 (1–3 day Angkor Pass)
Best time
Dry season, cool mornings with clearer skies
Difficulty
Easy
Time it takes
Half a day, with arrival by 4:30–5am
What people get wrong
People arrive at the main causeway instead of the reflecting pool north of it, where the classic reflected view actually is, and many forget the Angkor Pass is checked at multiple gates, not just the first one.
With
A group

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